


Stick Around and See How it Ends

by julielouise (orphan_account)



Series: Live It Up While You Can (You Don't Get Another Shot) [3]
Category: All Time Low, Bandom, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Mindless Self Indulgence, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, The Academy Is...
Genre: M/M, Mostly a lot of Angst, definitely read parts 1 and 2 first, no big warnings but, some hospital mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 14:33:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 14,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5931865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/julielouise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In fact, Ray was pretty sure no one in the group had ever gotten along so well. He almost thought it was just a show they were putting on since it was their last pizza night all together. Almost. But somewhere inside of him, he knew it wasn't. Every motion, every word, every joke - it was too sincere for anyone to be faking it. Nothing had ever made him happier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 - Fix You

**Author's Note:**

> so, i actually wrote this with the intention that every chapter has a song you should listen to while you read it. i titled the chapters after the songs, and put them in a note at the beginning of each chapter. there's also a link to the playlist on my blog (burkhrt.tumblr.com) in a recent post. enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: fix you / coldplay

“What do you mean Frank is in the hospital?” Gerard kind of felt like he’d been hit by a bus, or like when you’re on the playground throwing a ball and you don’t catch it and it hits you right in the gut. Whatever could happen to someone to knock the wind out of them - he felt like they’d all happened at once.

“The ER,” Pete said, having finally caught his breath. “I took him.

“Well, is he okay?” Jack asked. “Sorry, that was a stupid question. What happened?”

“How long has he been there? At the hospital?”

“I don’t know what happened,” Pete said. “Not exactly. We were just, like, sitting there and then he couldn’t breathe and his lips were turning blue so I took him to the ER. That was maybe like two and a half hours ago? What time is it?” He looked flustered and overwhelmed and his eyes were red and eventually he asked if he could have a minute to calm down because he’d just come from taking one of his best friends to the ER, dammit. They were all just sitting and no one was talking and Gerard’s head was a mess of ‘what is going on holy shit’ and ‘why the fuck is my boyfriend in the ER’ and then Pete decided he’d calmed down enough to tell them what he knew.

“Well he was just coughing last night and I asked but he said he was fine. He was still in bed when I was leaving for class this morning and I asked again but he said he just felt sick and he’d be fine later. So I got back from my classes and he was asleep in bed and I tried to do homework but it was boring so I fell asleep. He woke me up because he kept coughing and I went over to him because it sounded really bad and he was like grabbing his throat and his lips were turning blue so I took him to the ER as fast as I could.”

“What did they say?” Spencer asked. Gerard thought he should have been the one to ask, but he was only barely hearing the conversation.

Frank was in the hospital.

Gerard felt numb.

"I don't really know," Pete said, sighing. "They just asked me what I knew, y'know, like what I saw before we got there. They didn't let me back in the ICU."

"He's in intensive care?"

"Yeah."

"Holy shit."

"I was just kind of waiting around and I called his mom and told her what happened. Right after she got there I realized it's Friday and none of you knew what was going on so I got here as fast as I could."

"Should we go see him?" Andy asked.

"I really don't think the hospital would take kindly to seventeen people bursting in to see one person," Ray said. "But let's do it anyway."

And so sixteen fucking college students filed out of the dorm and got in their cars and made their way to the hospital. But Gerard crept up the stairs to his room and turned off the lights and opened the window and just sat on his bed.

Frank was in the hospital. Frank was in ICU. Frank had told him he was okay when Gerard asked if he should be worried about the coughing and the fact he got winded walking up the stairs. Frank was in the hospital.

Okay.

Gerard decided he was awful because his boyfriend was in the fucking hospital and all of his friends were on their way to visit him and here he was, lying in bed and not doing anything and he didn't know why. He didn't know why he wasn't on his way to see Frank and he was kind of pissed at himself but he didn't care.

He didn't know how long he'd been lying there when someone opened the door and light from the hallway spilled in.

"What the fuck is your problem, Gerard?"

Patrick.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Don't know what I mean? Why weren't you with the rest of us? At the hospital? You know, where your boyfriend is in fucking intensive care?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"No you asshole, I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

Gerard scoffed.

"You're just full of questions today, aren't you, Stump?"

“It’s just the one, really,” Patrick said sarcastically. “Now, if it was me, and it was my boyfriend laying in ICU, I would have gone to see him.”

“Well aren’t you just a stand up guy? Luckily for you, it’s not your boyfriend in the hospital, is it? No, it’s not. So, enlighten me. Why the fuck do you even care so much?”

“Someone has to.”

“Someone has to? Are you saying that you think I don’t give a shit that my boyfriend is in the fucking hospital? You think I don’t care?”

“It sure as hell doesn’t seem like it. In the time I’ve been standing in this room, you haven’t asked me about Frank once.”

Gerard stopped and swallowed thickly because, fuck, Patrick was right.

“You didn’t give me a chance. You just stormed in and asked what my problem is.”

“And I still don’t have an answer to that. Gerard, he’s in the hospital, and you don’t know why, and you haven’t even asked.”

Gerard didn't say anything.

"Do you even want to know?" Patrick asked.

"Of course I want to know why my boyfriend is in the fucking hospital."

"His lungs were filling up with fluid, Gerard. They said it was probably caused by a hard hit to the chest or something like that."

Gerard didn't say anything.

"The doctors said it could've been worse," Patrick continued. "But he'll be in the hospital for a week."

Gerard still didn't say anything.

"Gerard," Patrick said, moving closer to him. "Did you even hear what I said? Frank is going to be in the hospital for a week. Are you gonna go see him? Do you even care?"

"Will you just leave me alone please?"

"Frank doesn't deserve to have someone who doesn't even care that he's stuck in the hospital."

"What? You think I'm not good enough for Frank?"

"I didn't say that. I said Frank deserves someone who cares, and I don't know if you do."

"You know what, Patrick? Maybe I don't. Maybe I just don't fucking care," Gerard was raising his voice to match Patrick's. "I don't care." As soon as Gerard got the words out, he felt Patrick's fist collide with his cheek.

Within about one second of the punch, someone opened the door and walked in.

"Why are you guys in the da- HOLY SHIT ARE YOU PUNCHING EACH OTHER?"

"Hey, Mikes," Gerard said, rubbing his cheek.

"Can I ask what the fuck is going on?"

"Your brother is an asshole," Patrick said.

"Yes," Mikey shook his head. "I know he is. Patrick, I don't want to be rude, but can you, like, leave? I need to talk to Gerard."

"Sure. If I stay in here much longer I might punch him again." As soon as Patrick was out of the room, Mikey walked calmly over to Gerard and punched him on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Why the hell didn't you come to the hospital with us? In case you forgot, it's your boyfriend who is bedridden in ICU, not anyone else's."

"You think I don't know that? I feel like shit, Mikey. I'm so pissed at myself for not going to see him."

"Then go see him!"

"I can't."

"What does that mean? Why not? That doesn't make any sense."

"I just can't Mikey, okay?"

"Whatever dude. It's not my boyfriend who could've died. If you aren't gonna go I'm not gonna fuckin' make you."

"But you want me to. To go see him, I mean."

"Of course I do! How do you think Frank felt seeing everyone there except his boyfriend? How would you have felt?"

"Frank wouldn't do that to me."

"Then you shouldn't have done it to him! I don't know what the fuck your problem is, Gee, but you need to figure it out." Gerard scoffed.

“Well apparently no one knows, because Patrick told me that same thing. But, to be honest, I don’t think my relationship is your business or his.”

“I’m not saying it is,” Mikey said. “I’m saying that Frank looked pretty goddamn hurt when he realized you weren’t there. Look, I really don’t care how you do stuff in your relationship. That’s your business. But you need to be a good person for a minute and figure out why you didn’t go to the hospital. And as soon as you do, you need to go explain it to Frank.”

“Yeah,” Gerard said. “I’ll do that. I promise. Thanks, Mikes.”

He wasn’t lying- he really was going to try and figure it out. But he was worried that it might be something he or Mikey or Frank or anyone else wouldn’t be too happy about.


	2. Chapter 2 - Cough Syrup

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: cough syrup / young the giant

In retrospect, Alex thought, Frank being admitted to ICU was probably some sort of sign from the god of fucking things up. When he said this to Jack, he just got a laugh in response.

"What makes you think that, babe?" 

"Have you not noticed? Everything is going wrong!"

"Okay, Alex, you have to be more specific."

"Frank has been in the hospital for two days. In those two days, almost everyone has fought with each other. Patrick punched Gerard, Spencer slept in Brendon and Dallon's room last night because he and Jon had been fighting so badly, and Gerard  _ still  _ hasn't gone to see Frank."

"Babe, you can't control any of that, no matter how badly you want to."

"I just don't want this group to fall apart. Not now."

"What do you mean?"

"We just got Lindsey and Hayley, we've all stopped hating each other, and we all have this place, this family. It can't come crashing down now when it's only barely started."

"Nothing," Jack said, grabbing Alex's shoulders, "nothing is going to fall apart. Okay? You can't stop people from fighting, it just happens, especially in a group as big as this one. Gerard and Frank are fine, and Patrick and Gerard have had duct tape separating their room since they moved in. It was only a matter of time until one of them got punched." 

"You better be right. Besides you, that group is all I've got."

"What? What about the house?"

"Oh, come on, Jack. How many people besides our friends have actually come to us for help?"

"But that's what you're passionate about! You've got that!"

"Where is that house gonna get me? No fucking where."

"Well not with that attitude," Jack said, smirking.

"I'm serious, Jack. That house isn't worth shit."

"How can you say that? When it helped so many of our friends? When it helped me? That house is where we met."

"You know that's not what I meant," Alex reached for Jack, who jerked his shoulder away.

"Mhm," Jack muttered. "That's what it fucking sounded like."

"Jack, the only good thing that came from the house was meeting you. I'm just so worried that everything is gonna fall apart."

"It's not."

"You can't be sure."

"No," Jack said, pulling Alex closer. "I can't. But I can try to make you feel better and I can help you if anything does go wrong. Which it won't."

"I love you, you know that?"

"So I've been told," Jack grinned, leaning in to kiss him. "I don't blame you. I am pretty awesome."

"Wow, conceited much?" 

They giggled and Alex knew that no matter what, even if everything did fall apart, at least he'd have one good thing in his life. 

\---

As Alex had expected, Jack was wrong.

Everything really  _ was  _ falling apart, even more than Alex had actually known it was. Spencer and Jon hadn’t spoken to each other since Saturday, Andy and Joe had gotten into such a bad fight over God knows what that Andy had bunked in Pete’s room since Frank wasn’t there, Gerard still hadn’t gone to see Frank, and neither Mikey or Patrick would talk to Gerard about anything. Even Ray and Mikey had been fighting, so hell had essentially frozen over.

The dynamic of the group had changed drastically, and no one knew why, so they did the only thing they could think of.

They called for a Pizza Gays Group Meeting™.

"It's not even a Friday," Hayley said as she sat down. "I thought we only got together on Fridays."

"We do," William said. "But we have this kind of tradition of calling meetings when something is wrong." 

"Okay," Alex stood up. "Let's go ahead and get started I guess."

"Not everyone is here," Lindsey interjected. 

"Yeah, I know," Alex said. "That's part of the reason I asked all of you to come here. If you haven't noticed, the group has been a little, uh, off."

"What, you mean all the fighting?"

"Kind of. I mean, the fighting and people sleeping in different rooms and Gerard not going to see Frank and just. Everything."

"Where is Gerard anyway?" Ray asked. Everyone looked between Mikey and Patrick, but both of them just shrugged. 

"So, wait, who all is missing?"

"Gerard, Frank, Spencer, Jon, Joe, Andy, and Dallon," Brendon said, counting them off on his fingers. "But Dallon had class."

"What about everyone else?" Gabe asked. "Besides Frank, I mean."

"We don't know," Alex said. "And it's really fucking with me. I don't want everyone to stop showing up. I don't want this to fall apart.'

"This? What do you mean?"

"This! This! Everything!" Alex was throwing his hands around, face turning red. 

"What?"

"I don't want this group to fall apart. You guys are my family and I can't lose you. Not now." He put his head in his hands and sat there, and Jack went and put his arms around him when Alex started to cry. 

"Go," Jack mouthed at everyone else, nodding his head towards the door. No one wanted to go, but they did anyway.

It didn't feel right. None of what was happening felt right. 


	3. Chapter 3 - Maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: maybe / ingrid michaelson

"Does Alex really think everything will fall apart?" Mikey asked. He and Ray had left just like everyone else when Jack motioned for them to, but Mikey thought it was a little strange. 

"I guess so," Ray said.

"I don't see why. Things go wrong all the time, it doesn't mean that everything is going to fall apart. I mean yeah, Frank is in the hospital, but he'll be out at the end of this week. None of us have like, broken up or died or anything like that, right? We're fine." Ray hm'ed in response. "Don't you think so?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? What does that mean? Do you think everything is falling apart?" 

"Well, no," Ray said. "But you have to admit things are, uh, changing. The dynamic is different. I don't know why."

"That doesn't mean anything. A few people had arguments, whatever. Our friends are fine."

"Are you okay, babe?" Ray asked.

"Yeah," Mikey said. "I'm fine."

"Why are you so hung up on this?"

"I'm not hung up on it. I was just curious as to why Alex thinks he's going to lose all of our friends or whatever."

"But why is that bothering you so much? We're all fine, you said it yourself. Are you okay?"

"I don't want to lose them!" Mikey yelled out, and then lowered his voice. "I don't want to lose you." 

"Lose me? Why are you worried about that?"

"Ray, how long did you think this was really going to work? Us? This relationship?"

"What?"

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not in college. How often do we see each other, Ray?"

"What do you mean? You're here all the time!" 

"Yeah,  _ I'm  _ here all the time. You aren't. We haven't been alone together for more than 20 minutes in weeks. When was the last time we went on, I don't know,  _ a date _ ?" 

"I've been busy, Mikey."

"Busy. Busy. You've been busy."

"Yeah."

"Ray, I'm supposed to be your boyfriend. We haven't been on a date since before that fucking teamwork day and you want me to be okay with you saying you're  _ busy _ ?"

"Supposed to be? You ARE my boyfriend, Mikey."

"It certainly doesn't seem like it."

"But you are! Unless," Ray stopped. "Unless you don't want to be."

It was uncharted territory with them. They had only ever skirted around it during stupid arguments and then made up, never risking going any further. Both were afraid something might happen that they couldn't fix. That they wouldn't make up. 

Mikey folded his arms over his chest and glanced up at Ray through his glasses; Ray thought he looked a little like a lost puppy, and it made his heart hurt. 

"Maybe I don't want to be." 

Neither of them spoke for a minute, and the silence seemed to make that minute drag on for an hour. Ray had no idea what to say. Mikey had just said he didn't want to be in their relationship anymore. He cleared his throat and looked over at Mikey just as the younger boy stood up. 

"Should we talk about this?" Mikey shook his head and walked closer to Ray. As he got nearer, Ray saw that his eyes were starting to tear up. 

"I," he said, and then stopped. "I can't. I'm sorry." 

Ray sat still as Mikey leaned down, kissed his cheek, and then left the room. He had never believed in heartbreak- he thought it was just something people made up to get through bad breakups or losing someone, some cliche teen movie bullshit.

He had never believed in heartbreak until he was sitting alone in his dorm room after the person he cared about most in the world had ended their relationship. Until he couldn’t remember quite how long he’d been laying there in silence and sat up and wiped away tears he didn’t even know were there.

No, Ray had never believed in heartbreak. Not until he felt it himself.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: the boy who blocked his own shot / brand new

Gerard didn't like hospitals. They were too clean, too white, almost to the point of being unnatural. Hospitals were too neat and pristine for his messy hair and sallow skin and hoodie that fell off of his body in strange positions. It sagged and folded, there was too much fabric, but he grabbed and pulled at it anyway. 

"I'm here to see Frank Iero." He didn't like the way his voice sounded in hospitals. Every word muttered in the spotless hallways was too heavy, too final. 

A nurse led him through the halls to where Frank was and he pulled at his hoodie. 

"Mr. Iero?" Her voice was too soft for the ICU. "There's someone here to see you." Gerard pulled at his hoodie. Frank's face lit up when he walked in, and Gerard decided that he was the worst person in the world. 

"Gee! I didn't think you were going to come see me; I get out in two days. Why didn't you come with everyone else? And what happened to your face?" 

"Um, I couldn't come. Sorry." He pulled at his hoodie. "And my face is fine. Patrick punched me."

"Why?" Frank demanded. He looked ready to jump out of his bed and hunt down Patrick, but Gerard stopped him from doing anything.

"Because I didn't come see you. He thought it was shitty, and he was right. I'm sorry I didn't come."

"It's okay. Have I missed anything exciting? Besides the apparent boxing match that took place in your dorm room, I mean. I hate being cooped up in here." Gerard's conscience told him it was his fault Frank was here, and it was, but he'd bring that up later. 

"Things are, uh," He didn't really know how to tell Frank that the group of people who had brought them together and who they loved with all of their hearts was far too close to coming crumbling down around them. "Different. With our friends."

"Huh?"

"People have been fighting. I don't think Spencer and Jon have talked since last Saturday, and Joe and Andy aren't even sleeping in the same room right now." 

"What happened?"

"I don't know. Alex called us all in for a 'meeting' but five of us didn't show up. Besides you, I mean."

"Who?"

"Spencer, Jon, Dallon, Joe, Andy," he stopped. "And me." Frank shot him a confused glance. 

"Why weren't you there?"

"I couldn't go. I knew they'd be mad at me."

"That's ridiculous, Gee. Why would they be mad?"

"Because of this. They know."

"This? They know? Know wha- Gerard, what are you talking about?"

"Frank, it's my fault that you're in here," he said. Frank started to protest, but Gerard stopped him. "It is. After that show you started coughing. More than usual, I mean. You told me that you got hit but it was fine and you said the coughing was nothing more than usual and that was it. You got really winded walking up the stairs but you said it was fine. I didn't push or anything, and now you're in the hospital."

"Gerard, no. Babe, it is not your fault. I should have come in when the coughing was bad, but we don't know if they could have done anything."

"I didn't even try," Gerard said. "I didn't even  _ try  _ to see if anything was wrong. What if Pete hadn't been there? What would have happened? It shouldn't have even gotten that far, but it did. Because I didn't do anything."

"Gee,  _ stop _ ," Frank said. "It isn't your fault. It isn't anyone's. No one could have prevented it."  

“I can’t do it anymore, Frank.”

“Do what?”

“I can’t do this to you anymore. I can’t hurt you anymore. Can’t you see that this is my fault? You being in the hospital, and the only good thing we really have falling apart, and  _ this _ ! It’s all my fault!”

“This? What do you mean this? Gerard, you have to talk slower. Sit down and talk to me, babe.”

“I can’t. I can’t. This is my fault.”

“What is?”

“What’s happening right now.”

“I don’t know what you mean. What’s happening?”

“I’m fucking breaking up with you, Frank!”

Silence; the same unnatural silence typically found in hospitals, the kind that made it sound like every whispered exchange carried bad news and tragedy with it. Gerard hated it. He pulled at his hoodie. 

“What?”

“I have to. I- I  _ have  _ to, Frank. If I don’t then who knows what else might happen to you. I’m the reason you’re in the hospital. You have to understand why I’m doing this.”

“Gerard, you aren’t thinking straight. Listen to me, okay? We’re fine. I’m fine. You are not the reason I’m in the hospital, and nothing happening with our friends is your fault. Stuff like this just happens, no one can control it, it isn't anyone's fault."

"You can't change my mind, Frank."

"Gee-," Frank started, and he looked like he was about to cry, but Gerard held up a hand.

" _ No.  _ I have to. I'm sorry, Frankie. I love you." He pulled at his hoodie as he walked towards the door and left before Frank could say anything. As soon as he was in the hallway he stopped and pressed his back against the door and slid down it and he knew it was such a heartbreak teen cliché but he didn't fucking care. And he was going to leave, really, but he could hear Frank on the other side of the door.

"You love me? You  _ love  _ me? You just broke up with me in my fucking hospital room and then you left but you love me? You're the worst fucking person I've ever met."

Gerard stood up and turned to walk away and barely caught the last thing Frank said, but it made his feet stop and his breath hitch. 

"You'd never even said I love you before."

Gerard pulled at his hoodie and raced to get away from the too-white-too-clean hospital hallway.

\---

"What the fuck happened to you?" Pete asked. "Besides having your lungs fill with fluid and being hospitalized for a week, I mean." 

"You're gonna have to be more specific," Frank said, climbing into Pete's car. Sometimes he hated his roommate, but at least Pete was decent enough to pick him up from the hospital.

"You look like someone stole your dog or some shit. What's up?"

"I have to see Gerard again."

"Oh, yeah, he visited you! How'd it go?"

"Well," Frank began. "He told me that our entire group of friends is slowly crumbling apart and then he explained why my being hospitalized was his fault and then he broke up with me. So it could've been better." 

"Do I need to go, like, punch him or something?" Pete asked.

"Uh, no. I think Patrick has that covered," Frank said, earning a grin from Pete. "Do you know what he told me?"

"What?"

"He said he was sorry and that he loved me."

"Okay?" Pete said, glancing between Frank and the road. "Is that bad?"

"He'd never told me that he loved me before. I guess he thought that the best time to do it was while he was breaking up with me in my hospital room."

"I'm sorry, man," Pete said. "But why do you have to see him?"

"It's a Friday," Frank explained. "Pizza night."

"Uh, about that."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Yeah, well, it's not. How much did Gerard tell you, exactly?"

"Uh, he told me about him and Patrick. And that Joe and Andy were fighting and so were Spencer and Jon."

"Right, well, uh," Pete stuttered for a minute, trying to figure out what to say. "Some more has happened."

"Enlighten me."

"Spencer and Jon still aren't talking and neither are Joe and Andy. Uh, neither Patrick or Mikey will speak to Gerard. No one has heard from Lindsey or Hayley, Alex has been crying for like three days, and Ray and Mikey broke up."

"Jesus Christ," Frank said. "I was gone for a  _ week _ ."

"It was a busy week!" Pete exclaimed.

"Dude," Frank wheezed. "Don't make me laugh, it hurts like hell." 

"We don't think anyone will show up tonight," Pete admitted. "Except Alex."

"As in no one but Alex or as in Alex is the only one who thinks people will show?"

"Both."

"What about Jack? There's no way he'd let Alex be alone like that."

"Speaking of our favorite asshole," Pete grinned. "Jack wanted me to tell you about his, uh,  _ plan _ ."

Frank decided that any plan Jack had come up with alone would probably end in disaster, but he listened anyway.


	5. Chapter 5 - Skinny Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: skinny love / birdy

Alex knew no one would show up. He knew, and no one told him they weren't coming, but he knew. Despite that, he made his way down to the dorms with the pizza he'd ordered - because Gabe would forget - and sat on the couch by himself.

Seven o clock. No one.

Seven thirty. No one.

Eight o clock. No one.

He knew it was stupid to wait around because if anyone was going to show up they would've by now, but he did it anyway. The pizza was cold now - he hadn't touched it - and he felt like he was going to cry or scream or both because he was tired of being the only one in his entire group of friends who fucking cared and he wasn't going to stop now. Even if it meant sitting alone in the lounge everyday until his last day of college, he wasn't gonna stop trying to fix whatever had happened.

Eight thirty. No one.

\---

Jack decided that his idea - which he had titled Jack Barakat's End Of College Master Plan™ - was going well. He had explained the gist of it to a couple of his friends, but didn’t give anyone anything more than vague details. Luckily, no one asked for more, and he got to work on it pretty frequently. 

The downside to working on it was missing pizza nights, which were more important than ever now that shit had hit the fan with his friends, especially to Alex. 

He and Alex both knew no one would show up that night. Jack wanted to go, he hated not being there for Alex, but he couldn't. Part of his Master Plan™ had to happen that night, so he gave Alex some (total bullshit) excuse for why he wouldn't be there. He second guessed himself when Alex looked close to tears, but he knew part two of the Master Plan™ had to happen before anything else. But as soon as he finished with it, he rushed to the lounge of the dorms to see if Alex would still be there.

Jack thought he could feel his heart shatter when he looked through the window of the building and saw Alex alone, lying on the couch with an untouched pizza box on the table at after nine o clock at night. He felt physical pain in his chest when he walked in to see that Alex was crying. 

"Alex?"

Jack sat on the edge of the couch and placed a hand on Alex's side, making him glance up.

"Oh, hi. How long have you been here?"

"I just got here. What about you?”

"Since seven."

"I don't think anyone, uh," Jack stopped, not sure what to say.

"I know. No one showed up. It's okay."

Jack nodded, and he knew Alex was lying, but he wasn't going to push. 

"Do you wanna get out of here?" Alex shook his head.

"Um, I was gonna stay until nine. Just to," he stopped. "To see."

"Babe," Jack said. "It's nine thirty." 

"Okay."

Neither of them said anything for a minute, and when Alex put his head on Jack's shoulder and Jack could feel tears staining his sleeve, he kind of wanted to kill everyone they were friends with. He loved them, but he couldn't stand seeing Alex like this. He had to do something. And as he walked Alex back to the house, he added a piece to his genius master plan- a plan of its own, entitled ‘Jack Barakat’s Big Plan To Help Alex™’ . Okay, so 'big plan' was a bit of an exaggeration. It really just had one part - fix whatever shit was going on with his friends. He could do it. He had to. For Alex. 


	6. Chapter 6 - Arms

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: arms / christina perri

As it turned out, doing it “for Alex” was not as easy as Jack thought it was going to be. Not the for Alex part - he would do anything in the whole goddamn world for Alex - but the doing it part. Because the Big Plan ™ involved his friends, and, well, they all hated each other, and so Jack decided that he had to be the mediator for the group.

There was just one problem: Jack was a shitty mediator. 

He tried to get Spencer and Jon to talk to each other but Jon only spoke in some sort of odd existential prose and Spencer just wouldn’t talk at all and it only succeeded in making Jack have to spend the last of his money on Tylenol for the migraine the two had given him. He tried to get Ray and Mikey to talk to each other but neither of them showed up when he asked them to (assholes), and quite frankly he was a little terrified to be within a ten mile radius if Frank and Gerard happened to be in the same room. So, yeah, he was a shitty mediator. Luckily, he knew someone who was a bit better with words (and people) than he was. 

After several convincing pleas, he got William to agree to help him Fix That Shit. First on the list - Ray and Mikey. Jack figured that it wouldn’t actually be that hard to get them talking, on account of they’d been in love since the beginning of time and whatnot, but he didn’t want to take any chances. So, he went to talk to Ray and William texted Mikey to get him to come to campus, and they hoped for the best.

The thing was, Jack had never seen Ray upset before. At least, not in the heartbroken and devastated sense of the word. So, walking into the RA’s room to see him crying on the couch caught Jack off guard a little.

“Dude, are you okay? You didn’t forget I was coming, right?”

“Uh, no,” Ray muttered. He shook his head and wiped away a few stray tears. Jack pretended not to notice. “What’s up?”

“Right, well, I wanted to talk to you about this idea I had,” Jack said. He hoped the total bullshit he was spewing at least sounded sort of convincing. 

“Jack, the last idea you had was campus paintball,” Ray reminded him. “Look where that got us. I’m not so sure any of your ideas are very good ones. No offense.”

“None taken,” Jack assured. “Look, uh-,” a knock at Ray’s door interrupted him, and just in time, because he hadn’t planned this far in advance. Ray moved to open it and Jack couldn’t exactly put a word on the expression he had on his face when he saw Mikey standing outside his door. 

“Hey, Mikeyway,” he stopped, stumbling over his words. “Uh, Mikey. Sorry.”

“Can we come in?” William asked, and then pushed his way into the room without waiting for an answer and sat down next to Jack.

“Okay,” Mikey said, glaring at William. “Now that you’ve dragged me here, will you tell me what the fuck you want?”

“Okay, guys, hear me out,” Jack started. “So, I have this plan. Don’t give me that look, it’s a good plan. I can’t tell you the whole thing, but part of it is making sure that everyone in this group is at least on speaking terms with everyone else. Which is why you two are here.”

“I mean, I’m here because it’s my room,” Ray said. Mikey grinned at that, and Jack had never seen Ray look so excited. 

“Thanks, smartass,” he continued. “Anyways, we needed you guys here so you can talk to each other. Like. sort out your problems or some shit.”

“You don’t have to make up and get back together or whatever,” William said. “But you are gonna fix whatever happened so at least two of our friends will talk to each other again.”

“I don’t see why we need to do this,” Mikey said. “It isn’t your business what happened.”

“Maybe not, but I swear if this group doesn’t get back to the way it was before I am kicking someone’s ass,” Jack said. 

“Kick Gerard’s,” Mikey began. “If he’d just gone to see Frank in the hospital, I wouldn’t have broken up with Ray.”

“What?” Ray asked. “What’s Gerard got to do with that?”

“I don’t know, I mean,” Mikey stopped. “I was really mad at him because he was being such an ass. But I remembered he told me he didn’t know why he didn’t go see Frank, he just  _ couldn’t _ . And I thought that was the biggest load of bullshit I’d ever heard but the day we broke up I was thinking about it. And like? I’d been meaning to talk to you about spending more time together but I couldn’t and I didn’t know why. I think because so much was happening, it seemed like something that could wait. And then that day everything that had been said when we were all hanging out was in my head and I just sort of said it, but not the way I wanted to. I wanted it just to be calm and something we could work out easily but it was an argument instead.”

“So that’s it? You broke up with me because you were mad at Gerard?”

“No,” Mikey said quickly. “I mean, yeah, I guess I did but I didn’t want to. I just wanted to talk to you but it’s like I wasn’t controlling my words or something and the next thing I knew I was saying I didn’t want to be your boyfriend anymore even though that wasn’t true because I love you and then I was crying outside your door but I couldn’t-,” he was talking at lightning speed, but Ray held up a hand to stop him.

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I cried outside your door, it’s humiliating, okay?”

“No,” Ray said. “Before that. It wasn’t true?”

“Of course not, idiot. I,” Mikey stopped, realizing what else he’d said. His face went red and Jack would’ve probably laughed his ass off if he hadn’t been making an effort to not ruin the moment. “I love you.”

“You’d never said that before.”

“I always knew it.”

No one spoke and the silence would’ve been less awkward if Jack and William weren’t there, but Ray and Mikey didn’t even notice them. Jack had never seen two people look so in love, and if he wasn’t so focused on making sure this part of his plan worked, he might’ve thought it was sweet. After a moment. Ray wrapped Mikey up in his arms and hugged him so hard that Jack wasn’t entirely sure the boy could breathe. 

“Aww, you made up,” William said, smiling. “And now you’re making out. That’s our cue, Jack. Let’s go.”

The two of them left, and Jack felt pretty damn proud about that success. Ray and Mikey had made up, and, naturally, it didn’t take long until they reclaimed their spot as the most stable couple in the whole fuckin’ group. 

(He couldn’t really thank William for that, because Ray and Mikey were bound to get back together eventually, but he could thank him for the rest.)

Within the week, William had gotten Joe and Andy to sort out their shit AND gotten Spencer and Jon to speak to each other like normal, functioning people, which Jack had nearly forgotten actually existed. The next step would prove to be a bit more challenging- getting Frank and Gerard together. It’d be one thing to get them in the same damn room, much less speaking like civilized people. Jack didn’t know what had even happened between them to cause their break up, and Pete was the only person outside of the relationship who did know, but he wouldn’t tell anyone. Dick.

“How hard can it be to get them in the same room?” William asked. 

“Well, all I know is the vague information I’ve gotten from Pete. Apparently if someone even says Gerard’s name, Frank leaves the room.”

“And Gerard?”

“I don’t have any solid info there, to be honest. Patrick and Mikey still aren’t talking to him, and he isn’t talking to anyone else. That’s where you come in.”

“Oh, joy,” William scoffed. “What do I do?”

“You have to find some way to get Gerard out of his dorm room and somewhere else so we can get the two of them together.”

“Uh huh, and how do you suggest I do that, genius?”

“I don’t know. You’re both kind of weird. Talk to him about, like, art or music or something. You’ll probably figure it out.”

“Thanks for the moral boost, ass.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Jack said, smiling. “So, how long do you think you’ll need?”

“How fast do you need them together?”

“Hm,” Jack thought for a moment. “Can you do it in, like, two days?”

“I can try.”

“That’s the spirit!” Jack grinned. “Hey, thanks again for doing this.”

“You’re lucky I agreed with the minimal and vague details you gave me. What is this plan going to lead to, and should I be worried?”

“It’s a surprise. And probably not.”

“That’s  _ so  _ reassuring.”

Jack couldn’t keep a smile off his face, because his plan was going perfectly. By his calculations, the successful end result was going to happen that Friday. Nothing had ever worked out for him so well in his life. The plan was running smoothly, everything was going well.

So, by the nature of the universe, Jack figured some sort of near-cataclysmic setback was probably on the horizon. 

Sometimes, Jack hated being right.


	7. Chapter 7 - People Help the People

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: people help the people / birdy

Given recent events in their ‘little family’, everyone was actually having a calm, relaxing day. Most of them (everyone minus Frank, Gerard, Brendon, and Dallon) were sitting in the lounge, hanging out like they had before the chain reaction of life-ruining bullshit started.

“Looks like our endless cycle of drama has taken a break today,” Alex said, getting a few laughs. 

It had, in fact, taken a break. Right up until Dallon burst through the door, red-faced and teary-eyed and breathing heavily. 

Almost instinctively, Ray was up and getting him some water, and Patrick and Mikey were leading him to a seat. He drank half the glass of water in one gulp, and didn’t wait for someone to ask before he relayed the news that they did not fucking need right now.

“Brendon had a car accident.”

Fucking super.

“What happened? Is he okay?” Pete demanded.

“I- I don't know,” Dallon stuttered. “The hospital or 911 or someone called me because I'm his main contact or something like that. I don't know. I ran over here as fast as I could. I haven't been down there yet. I don't know.”

Hayley sat next to him and rubbed his back, trying to calm him down. 

“Hey, Dal, it's okay,” she assured him. “We’ll all go down there, okay? We'll go see him. I'm sure he's fine.” Dallon nodded, but Alex couldn't tell if he'd actually heard her or not. Lindsey looked at everyone.

“Me and Hayles will drive him, you guys follow behind. And somebody find Frank and Gerard.” 

“I will,” William said.

“Dude, no offense, but this is probably not a good time for that,” Jack said, shooting him a look.

“Thanks, genius,” William groaned. “I’m just gonna tell them what's going on.”

“Not a good time for what?” Alex asked.

“Nothing,” William and Jack spoke in unison. Alex gave them a strange look, and was about to ask again when Lindsey interrupted,

“Hey, can we do this later? Let's go- William, text one of us when you're on your way, yeah?” William nodded and ran for the stairs. 

\---

“Gerard, I know you're in there, let me in,” William yelled, banging on the door. He barely stopped himself from hitting Gerard when he finally opened it.

“You’re more annoying than your personal frat boy sometimes, you know that?”

“Feeling snarky this afternoon, huh, Way? And, assuming you meant Gabe, no one is more annoying than he is.”

“What do you want, William?”

“Brendon is in the hospital. We're going to see him.” Gerard went pale (well, paler than usual) and nodded, but William couldn't help but notice his expression at the words ‘in the hospital’. 

“Is he okay?” The words were quiet - William barely heard them.

“We don't know.” Gerard nodded again. “I’ll meet you in the lounge, okay?” 

As soon as Gerard was down the stairs, William ran the short distance down to Frank and Pete's room and knocked. Frank was much faster about opening the door. 

“I’m not coming to the meeting, I already told Alex.” He started to shut the door, but William stuck his foot out to stop it. 

“Yeah, that's not what this is about. We're going to the hospital.”

“Why?” Frank demanded.

“Brendon got into a car accident. Everyone else already left.” Frank nodded, grabbed his phone, and followed William down to the lounge.

“Oh, no fucking way,” Gerard said when they appeared. Frank turned and started back up the stairs.

“Tell Pete to text me and tell me how Brendon is.” William sighed and grabbed the back of Frank's shirt, pulling him down the last two steps.

“Yeah, so, here's the thing. I don't know what happened between you two and I don't care. You don't have to like each other or talk to each other or anything. Hell, I'd prefer that neither of you say anything the whole time. But both of you are getting in my car and we are going to the hospital to see Brendon, and neither of you assholes are backing out.”

“Fine,” Frank said. “Of course, I can only speak for myself. Gerard doesn’t like visiting people in hospitals unless he's breaking up with them.”

“Will you let it go?”

“ _ Let it go?  _ Oh, yeah! No problem, Gerard. I'll just forget that while I was bedridden in the hospital for a week, you took it upon yourself to break off our relationship with no explanation and stop talking to me. No big deal.”

“No explanation? I  _ told  _ you, it-,”

“For the love of God, SHUT UP.” William yelled. “Let’s just go. And neither of you talk on the way.” 

\---

“You and I have very different definitions of ‘text one of us when you're on the way’, Beckett.” Lindsey said as William, Frank, and Gerard entered the hospital lobby. 

“Yeah, sorry,” William said. “I was stuck in a car with these two and neither of them would shut the fuck up long enough for me to get them to text you.”

“Good God,” someone said. “There’s more of you?” A nurse stepped up to the group that had expanded by three, and Dallon looked up at her. 

“Is he okay? Can we see him?” 

“He’s off of the anesthetic now, and he's coherent, so everything looks good.”

“Why was he under anesthesia?” Pete asked.

“For the surgery,” she said. “He broke his right arm in the crash and the doctor wanted to operate right away. As I said, he's stable. I can let two of you back to see him.”

Everyone looked at Dallon, who shook his head. 

“I can't. Somebody else.”

“It’s okay, Dallon. I'll go back with you,” Hayley said. The two of them stood and followed the nurse to Brendon's room. 

“I’m a little disappointed I didn't get the whole gang,” Brendon said. “Are they at least in the lobby? Lie to me if the aren't, I need the boost.”

“Oh, they are,” the nurse said, shaking her head. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Brendon, what happened?” Hayley asked. “They called Dallon from here and told him and he came and told us. I guess you were already in surgery.”

“Uh, I don't remember exactly. I was driving back to campus and the light changed so I started across and this guy ran his red light and hit my car on my side. The doctor said I should be thankful that all I got was a broken arm and some stitches in my leg and my face.”

“You don't sound like you are.” Dallon spoke for the first time and moved to the seat next to Brendon's bed. Dallon could tell something was bothering him, and he took Brendon's hand in his own and just waited. 

“The doctor said I won't ever be able to, uh,” he stopped. Dallon saw that his eyes were tearing up, but didn't say anything. “He said I probably won't ever play guitar again.” 

Dallon had never seen Brendon really cry. He recalled some times when Brendon's eyes would water from laughing hard, and one time Brendon had made himself cry. But that was it. So when tears streaked his roommate's face and his chest heaved with his sobs, Dallon didn't really know what to do. 

“I just- it's just-,” Brendon stopped and took a deep breath. “Guitar is one thing I'm really good at. And even better, something I'm good at and like doing. I'm studying music, goddamn it! This isn't fair! What am I supposed to do if I can't play guitar? What's the point?”

“You can sing, can't you?” Hayley questioned. 

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So, there you go! You can keep your major and still enjoy it and do something else you love.” 

“Did he say you wouldn't ever play again, or that you  _ probably  _ wouldn't?” Dallon interjected. 

“Probably.”

“Well, that settles it. As soon as you’re better and the doctor okays it, I'll help you play again.

“Are you serious?” Brendon asked.

“Yeah,” Dallon nodded. “I figure, like, I haven't been the best roommate to you. And I know we don't hate each other anymore, but I never did anything to make up for being a dick. So I want to do this for you.” 

Dallon had never, ever seen someone smile so wide.


	8. Chapter 8 - Clairvoyant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: clairvoyant / the story so far

According to Jack, Brendon's accident was a minor setback in his master plan. William thought that was stupid, but he was eager to see the final result of whatever Jack was doing, just in case it blew up in his face. He always liked a good laugh. 

Even as much as he wanted to see that happen, he’d still agreed to help Jack out, and he planned to honor his word. So, a few days after they visited Brendon, William was working on getting Frank and Gerard in the same room again. He convinced Gerard to come talk to him about some poem they'd gone over in the class they had together, and he convinced Frank to come to his room because there would be food.

Gerard showed up first, and was far too enthusiastic about the poem. William almost felt bad for lying to him. Almost. 

“Okay, so, what part of it did you want to talk about?” 

“Well, uh,” he began, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. “Hang on.” 

As he walked to open it, he prayed to whoever may have been listening that this didn't blow up in his face.

“Oh, you're fucking kidding.” Frank tried to turn and leave as soon as he saw Gerard, but William stopped him. 

“Nobody else better be in the fucking hospital,” Gerard said.

“Why?” Frank asked. “Because you can only handle hospitals if you're going to break someone's heart?” 

“Okay, both of you shut up,” William said. “No one is in the hospital.”

“Fantastic,” Frank said. “Can I go now?”

“Neither of you are leaving,” William stated, standing with his back against the door. “You two are gonna talk this shit out.”

“I don't have anything to say,” Frank assured him. “But if Gerard wants to apologize, he can go for it.”

“I don't have anything to apologize for.”

“Oh, really? Because I think-,” 

“Shut  _ up, _ ” William groaned. “Look, to be totally honest, I don't really care if you guys work this out or not. I'm not doing it for me. Jack asked me to.”

“Why does Jack care?”

“For the good of the group or some shit. Look, he has this master plan he won't tell anyone about and he asked me to make everyone get their shit together and stop arguing. You two are the last on the list.” Frank started to protest, but William held up his hand. “I don't care. Look, you don't have to love each other or make up and get back together or anything like that. But the two of you are gonna sit here and talk out your goddamn problems.” Neither of them said anything. “Okay, since you’re both awful at this, I'll help you out. Frank, why are you mad at Gerard?”

“He broke up with me while I was bedridden in a fucking hospital!” 

“I had to!” Gerard countered.

“What does that even mean? I've been sitting in my fucking dorm room day and night since then trying to figure out what you even said to me because none of it made sense.”

“It means if I didn't do it, who knows what would have happened? What if you ended up in the hospital again? Or worse?”

“I told you it wasn't your fault!  _ Why  _ are you so adamant about that?”

“Because it was,” Gerard insisted. “It  _ was  _ my fault! If it wasn't for me you never would have gone to that show and you never would have been hospitalized.”

“Gerard, I  _ wanted  _ to go to that show. If we weren't dating, hell, even if we didn't know each other, I still would’ve gone and it still would've happened!” 

“But you asked me and I said you should go!”

“I asked you because I wanted to make sure we didn't have plans that night! You said we didn't, so I went. That's all.”

“Well, it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me.”

“Gee, you can't blame yourself for everything.” Frank was speaking more softly now, and had moved a bit closer to Gerard. “It would have happened no matter what, I promise. It wasn't your fault. If this was the only reason you broke up with me we could’ve talked it out in the hospital that day.”

“Well, I, uh,” Gerard stopped. “I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“I was afraid you'd think it was my fault, and you'd break up with me or you wouldn't ever love me or anything.”

“Wouldn’t ever love you? Gerard, I already loved you.”

“Well you hadn't ever said it, so I was just,” he stopped again, searching for words. “I didn't know.”

“Neither had you!” Frank raised his voice a little. “You said it that day, right after you broke up with me.”

“I needed you to know.”

“Well why didn't you tell me before that?”

“Because I didn't know how you'd react! You never said it either.”

“Was it even a question? Of course I loved you. I,” Frank stopped. “I still do.”

“Damn, didn't see that coming,” William blurted out. “Oops. Sorry, ignore me, keep going.” 

“Look,” Frank began. “There wasn't a single moment I didn't want to tell you. But I could never tell how you might react. So I didn't say anything.” 

“Kind of a dick move,” William said. “That wasn't supposed to be out loud. Sorry.”

“You’re ruining this, Beckett.” Frank glared at him.

“Frank, I'm sorry.” Gerard said. “At the time, it seemed like I was doing something good for both of us.”

“And now?”

“And now I realize I wasn't. I was such an asshole, and I'll understand if you don't forgive me. But I love you, and I'm sorry, okay?” 

Frank didn't say anything, just looked at Gerard. If William was being totally honest, he felt like he was viewing something far too personal- something only meant for Frank and Gerard to witness. 

“Gee, I,” Frank began, but he stopped himself.

“It’s okay,” Gerard said. “You don't have to forgive me. Hell, I wouldn't forgive me. But I just needed you to know that I'm sorry.”

“That’s it?”

“And that I love you.” At that, William saw the tiniest possible smile on Frank's face. 

“I love you too.” It seemed to catch Gerard off guard completely, like he'd never expected someone to say that to him. After a moment, he seemed to realize that Frank had actually said it- and, even more, that Frank had  _ meant  _ it.

“You do?”

“Yeah, of course I do,” Frank said, nodding. “And I forgive you.” 

William had never seen Gerard look so excited - so hopeful - in all the time that he'd known him. Gerard threw his arms around Frank's neck and hugged him tightly, like he would never let him go. William thought it was sweet. Until they were damn near making out in the middle of his room.

“Alright, you made up, yay!” He said, opening the door. “Go do that somewhere else.” 


	9. Chapter 9 - White Houses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: white houses / vanessa carlton

As far as Jack was concerned, things were certainly looking up. He and William (mostly William) had gotten the majority of their friends to sort out whatever shit had happened, and the old dynamic of the group was slowly coming back. 

About goddamn time.

Things were actually going so well in the group that he had convinced everyone to come over to the house to hang out. It had taken some persuasion (Gabe was mad at everyone for “ruining the one good thing he had”, but Jack told him there'd be free food, and that was enough to bribe him) but everyone came around eventually. 

To be honest, Jack was more than a little worried that something would go wrong. But when he told Alex that everyone was coming over, he had never seen his boyfriend look so happy. So he tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his gut as it got closer to eight o clock - for Alex’s sake. 

\---

A few hours later, Jack decided his worries were for nothing. They'd been hanging out for an hour, and everyone was genuinely having a great time. 

That is, until they weren't anymore. 

“I can't believe you guys got back together,” Pete said, looking at Frank and Gerard.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, the night Frank went to the hospital, Gerard told Patrick that-,” 

“Pete,  _ shut up _ .” Patrick insisted.

“No, Pete, keep going,” Gabe said. “I’m sure we'd all love to hear this.”

“No, no we wouldn't,” William said, glaring at Gabe. “Who wants more food?”

“Told Patrick what?” Frank asked, looking between Pete and Gerard like a lost puppy. 

“That he didn't care that you were in the hospital.”

“What?” Frank looked heartbroken, and Jack knew that his plan to have a good time with his friends was about to blow up in his face.

“Woah, that is  _ not  _ what I said,” Gerard said defensively. “Frank, we talked about this. I was confused, I was blaming myself. I didn't mean anything I said to Patrick when he was fucking interrogating me.”

“Interrogating you? Seriously?” Patrick gave him a nasty look. “You didn't go with the rest of us to see your boyfriend at the hospital. Was I just not supposed to ask why?”

“Yes! It was none of your business!” 

“Guys,” Frank interrupted. “It’s been weeks. It doesn't matter anymore, okay?” 

“It was still shitty of him to do,” Patrick said.

“Well, you'd know,” Gerard began. “You’re a shitty person.” 

Patrick got up and stormed out, and Pete followed right behind, muttering something about “goddamn art boy”. 

“Well, that was nice,” William said, trying to lighten the mood. 

“Not really,” Joe said. “Patrick looked upset.”

“Yeah, well, he's not the only one,” Gerard sighed. 

“What do you have to be upset about?” Spencer asked. 

“Uh, they said a bunch of private shit that wasn't actually supposed to be group information.” 

“If you didn't want anyone to know, maybe you should have avoided telling Patrick that stuff. Y’know, by going to see your boyfriend in the hospital.”

“Can we let that go?” Gerard pleaded. “Me and Frank are fine now, it doesn't matter.” 

“It was still a douchey move,” Spencer said. A few people hummed in agreement. 

“I  _ know, _ ” Gerard said. “If I could take it back, I would. Now can we drop it?”

“Whatever.” 

“Y’know what I wish?” Gabe spoke up, looking around at everyone. “That once in a while, all of you would shut up and we could all maybe have a nice time and everyone would stop being so mad all the time.”

“No one’s even mad,” Lindsey interjected. 

“I am!” Gabe said. “I’m mad that just a few months ago I was calling you all my family and then one person did something others didn't necessarily agree with and now it's all gone to shit.”

“Alright,” Lindsey said. “Anyone else mad? Or have something they'd like to get out in the open?” 

“I mean, I'm pissed that I broke my arm,” Brendon said. “But I'm fine besides that.”

“I’m curious as to why Jack suddenly took so much interest in our relationships, seemingly without anything to gain from it,” Andy said, shooting Jack a look. 

“Well, that, I mean,” Jack stumbled over his words. “Just. Trying to help.”

“Yeah,” Alex said, looking at Jack. “What was with that? And why have you been so secretive lately? You literally haven't been with anyone except William.” 

Somebody snickered, probably Brendon or Jon. Jack scoffed. They had to be fucking joking. 

“Yeah, Jack,” Gabe said. “You have been spending an awful lot of time with my boyfriend.” 

“You think I'm fooling around with your boyfriend?” 

“Well, neither of you are denying it.”

“Gabe,” William interjected. “Are you fucking kidding? Do you  _ seriously  _ think I'd cheat on you?”

“To be honest, I don’t know what any of you would do anymore,” Gabe said. “I’ll see you guys later.”

“Gabe-,” William started, but his boyfriend had already walked out the door. 

“He was right,” Brendon said. “You didn’t deny anything.”

“Shut the fuck up, Brendon,” William said. “I swear to God if your arm wasn’t broken I’d beat you up.” Instead of doing that, he shot Brendon a dirty look and stormed out the door, probably to go find Gabe. 

“You guys  _ have  _ been together a lot,” Alex said. “Don’t look at me like that, Jack. I trust you, I just. I don’t know.”

“ _ Alex, _ ” Jack said, sitting down next to him. “I’m not fucking cheating on you with William, okay? I just needed his help with something.”

“What?”

“Uh,” Jack stuttered. “I can’t tell you.”

“ _ Jack. _ ”

“I can’t! I promise it’s nothing bad, but I can’t tell you. Not you specifically, Al. I can’t tell any of you.”

“Except William?”

“I didn’t tell William! I told him what I needed his help with and that was it!”

“Whatever, Jack.”

“Alex, nothing is going on, I-,”

“What _ ever,  _ Jack,” Alex said harshly, standing up. “I’ll see you later.” He walked away, turning the corner to the room he and Jack shared, and Jack let out a deep sigh.

“God, I fucking knew something was gonna go wrong tonight.”

“Well, since we’re apparently airing our grievances,” Gerard said. “Spencer’s an asshole.”

“What did I do?” 

“You wouldn’t shut up about me and Frank even though it’s none of your goddamn business,” Gerard said, raising his voice slightly. 

“Well, apparently everything that happens in this group is everyone’s business,” Spencer said. “Or, at least according to Jack.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, mister relationship counselor. You got involved in my and Jon’s business, Andy and Joe’s, Frank and Gerard’s,  _ and  _ Ray and Mikey’s, even though none of it concerned you at all!”

“I told you guys I was trying to help everyone sort their shit out!”

“For what?” Frank asked. “Your ‘master plan’? You did it for your own personal gain.”

“Aren’t you glad he did?” Hayley questioned. “I mean, all of you did sort out your problems.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t his place,” Andy said. 

“Well God knows none of you would’ve done it on your own,” Dallon spoke up. “You were all like fucking broken records - he left me, he left me, blah blah blah. No one cares!”

“Oh, please,” Mikey said. “You’d have done the exact same thing if somebody dumped you.”

“Besides, do any of our relationships concern you guys at all?” Ray asked.

“Look,” Dallon continued. “All I know is that while Joe and Andy were fighting, Joe literally asked me for advice while he was sitting under my fucking chair. That’s weird as fuck. Like, weirder than him hiding under my chair like he usually does.”

“Yeah, and Spencer just complained to me every day,” Brendon said. “And it was real fuckin’ annoying.” Spencer glared at him.

“Oh, you’re fucking dead, Urie,” Spencer said. “I am  _ not  _ annoying.”

“I’d like to remind everyone that when you’re dead they stuff you in a freezer,” Jon said. “Let’s all practice for that now by obtaining some chill.”

“Yeah, what Jon said,” Joe nodded, but looked confused. “Whatever it is that he said.”

“God, will all of you shut the fuck up?” Lindsey demanded. “You’re all annoying as hell, you all complained about your relationships, and you all need to chill the fuck out. I used to like being friends with you guys because it was chill and we would just eat pizza and hang out. But now I’m one hundred percent certain Hayley and I are the only normal ones in this whole group, and I’m kind of fed up with all of you. Whenever you can all learn to fucking get along, let me know,” she finished, then promptly stood up and marched out the door, Hayley following right behind her. 

No one said anything, and it only took a few minutes until everyone had left except Jack. He kept thinking about what Lindsey said, because he knew she was right. The group of friends he’d loved so much had pretty much self-destructed, and he knew he had to find some way to fix it.


	10. Chapter 10 - Songbird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: songbird / fleetwood mac

After the disaster of a time they had with everyone else, Gabe didn’t talk to William for the rest of the night. William thought it was childish as hell, but Gabe ignored him every time he said so. After a while he just gave up, but he was damn determined to make Gabe talk to him. 

The next morning, Gabe still wouldn’t do it, so William decided to make him.

“Okay, Gabe,” he said. “I really don’t know  _ why  _ you aren’t talking to me, but will you please give it up? I don’t even know what the fuck I did.”

“Why don’t you ask your new boyfriend?”

“Seriously?” William said. “Oh my god. Okay. Listen very carefully, yeah? Me. And. Jack. Are. Not. Dating. I’m not cheating on you with fucking Jack Barakat, or anyone else for that matter.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Do you really not trust me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I don’t.”

Out of every answer Gabe could’ve given, William didn’t think any of them would’ve hurt him quite as much as that one did. Gabe didn’t trust him. 

“Gabe, where did this come from? I mean, did something happen to make you stop trusting me? Or to make you think I would  _ ever  _ cheat on you? Because if I did something wrong I’d want to know what it was.”

“I don’t know!” Gabe shouted. “Just. God, everything with all our friends has been so fucked lately and I’m sick of it!”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone is always fighting or breaking up or yelling or something like that and I’m trying to avoid it as much as I can. And maybe it’s clouding my judgement, I don’t know. I just don’t want it to be like this anymore.”

“Gabe, people fight. It’s just what happens. Why is this bothering you so much?”

“Because in my entire life I’ve only had two good things - you, and that group of idiots,” Gabe said. “And I feel like there’s no way I can have multiple nice things at one time, especially two that I love so much, and I’m worried that both of them are gonna come crashing down around me.”

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” William assured him. He sat next to him and rubbed his back. “Look, I know how much our friends mean to you. That’s why Jack and I were spending so much time together - we were trying to get everyone to stop fighting. Okay?” 

“You mean more to me, though,” he began. “And I don’t want to lose you.”

“Lose me? Gabe, why were you ever worried about that?”

“I just kind of figured it would happen. Everyone else was breaking up and I didn’t think you’d break up with me but I wasn’t sure so I started backing away from the whole group. And then you started spending so much time with Jack and it just seemed like my worries were all falling into place.”

“Babe, no,” William said. “I don’t want that to be something you ever worry about, okay? There should never be any reason you think I’m gonna break up with you, and if there is, will you  _ please  _ talk to me about it?” Gabe nodded. “I can’t say I know what’s gonna happen with our friends. Last night got progressively worse, and I don’t know what happened after I left. But I do know that I think the two of us are gonna be okay.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Because, Gabe,” William began. “I am so in love with you, and I know I’d never do anything that could even possibly mess that up.” He was pretty sure he hadn’t seen Gabe smile so much in weeks.

“I love you so much, mariposa.”

Gabe kissed him and, yeah, William knew they were gonna be okay.


	11. Chapter 11 - Don't Dream It's Over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song: don't dream it's over / crowded house

Jack didn’t know how he had convinced everyone - minus Alex, who wouldn’t speak to him despite his insistence that  _ no,  _ he was not sleeping with William - to meet him in the lounge that afternoon, but he was damn glad he did. The next day was the last Friday of his senior year of college, and the last chance they’d all get to have a pizza party together. It was also his only chance to get to the hopefully successful end result of his Master Plan™, so he had to fix the group’s shitty problems as soon as he could.

“Dude, why do you keep getting us all together?” Frank asked. “It never turns out how you want it to.”

“Yeah, that’s why we’re here,” Jack said. “Look, this is really important to me. I know at least half of you are pissed at me right now, but just hear me out. So, a few weeks ago, like right after all the fighting started, I had this idea. And it sort of turned into a plan and I need to make sure the last part of it goes well tomorrow. But I can only do that if we all sort out our fucking problems.”

“So, this is all for your own personal gain?” Andy asked.

“No,” Jack insisted. “I love you guys, okay? And I hate that we’re all fighting so fucking much, and I hate what it’s done to Alex and to all of us. So we have to sort it out. I’m not just doing this for me - I want us to be back to normal again.”

“Alright,” Lindsey said. “So where do you suggest we start?”

“Uh,” Jack stopped. “Wherever. Anyone who wants to get anything out in the open just go for it.”

“Well,” Spencer said. “Personally, I don’t have anything to apologize for.”

“Oh, yeah fucking right,” Gerard fired back. “You were such an-,”

“Guys,” Gabe interrupted. “Don’t you see you’re doing exactly what Jack is trying to fix? There’s some of us sitting here who can’t go ten seconds without saying something nasty to somebody else. If we can’t all get over this shit, I’m worried we’re all gonna drift apart. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I consider all of you my family. And I don’t want to lose you guys.” Jack saw William rub his back when he finished, and nearly breathed a sigh of relief - at least a few of them were trying to get it together.

“Gabe’s right,” Brendon said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about my accident, and I know it could’ve been worse than it was, and I’m grateful that it wasn’t. You guys have no idea what a relief it was to know you were all there, that for at least a few minutes no one was fighting. It was like it used to be. But it’s not right now, and I wish it was.”

Jack saw a few people nod in agreement. Maybe this was getting through to them.

“Well, I still say some of us don’t  _ need  _ to apologize for anything,” Spencer said.

Okay, maybe not.

“Spencer, remember the very first pizza party? After the teamwork day?” Ray asked. Spencer nodded. “I don’t think I ever told you guys how much relief I felt that night. I’d just been holding onto a tiny bit of hope that I could get you all to put aside your differences and stop being so mad at each other all the time. It’s literally the same thing happening right now. I can’t even explain how much I wish it was still like that first party.”

“Exactly!” Jack said. “Or like the very first night we were all at the house. We have to get that back. That was special.”

“Look,” Mikey spoke up. “We’ve all done stupid shit these past few months. We just need to apologize and put it behind us.” No one spoke for a minute, and Jack was about to lose hope that anyone in the room would be apologizing for anything. 

“Uh, I’ve got something to apologize for,” Pete said, breaking the silence. “I shouldn’t have brought up that stuff Gerard told Patrick when Frank was in the hospital. I’m sorry.”

“And I shouldn’t have even told him,” Patrick said. “I mean, I’m still gonna hate you sometimes, Gerard, but that wasn’t anyone else’s business.”

“Well, the two of us have already gotten past this, but just so everyone else can hear it - Frank, I’m sorry I didn’t go see you in the hospital that first night. It was an asshole move on my part.” Gerard looked at Spencer.

“God, fine,” Spencer said. “Look, Gerard, I’m sorry I said all that stuff to you the other night; your relationship isn’t my business.”

“I’m sorry I blew up at you guys the other night,” Lindsey admitted. “I was just fed up with us all acting like five year olds.”

“Jack, I’m sorry I accused you of fooling around with my boyfriend. That wasn’t cool,” Gabe said. 

It went on for a decent amount of time, until the apologies started getting a little ridiculous (“Dallon, sorry I always hide under your chair and scare you. It’s just really funny” “Uh, it’s no big deal, Joe, really”) and everyone was smiling and laughing. Jack was a little more than ecstatic. If all went according to his plan, their last Friday night pizza party was going to be the best one ever.


	12. Chapter 12 - Right Where We Left Off / This Is The New Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> song(s): right where we left off / the downtown fiction ||| this is the new year / a great big world  
> [i'd recommend starting this is the new year right around the line 'surprises were good']

“Where’s Jack?” Pete asked as he and Patrick walked into the lounge. “He better not be a no show, I’ll hit him I swear.”

“He said for me to text him when we were all here,” Ray said. “Is this everybody?”

“Dallon and Brendon aren’t here yet,” Hayley pointed out. Right as she finished, the two bounded down the stairs.  
“GUYS,” Brendon yelled. “LOOK AT THIS.” He stopped and sat down, then took the guitar Dallon had brought and played a chord. 

“The doctor okayed it for him to try and play again, as long as he started small,” Dallon explained. “So we’ve been practicing chords.” Brendon smiled at him, and Ray didn’t think he’d ever  seen the two of them getting along so well. 

In fact, Ray was pretty sure no one in the group had ever gotten along so well. He almost thought it was just a show they were putting on since it was their last pizza night all together. Almost. But somewhere inside of him, he knew it wasn’t. Every motion, every word, every joke - it was too sincere for anyone to be faking it. Nothing had ever made him happier. 

\---

“Jack, no,” Alex said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m not going.”

“Why not?”

“No one’s gonna fucking show up!” He exclaimed. “What’s the point? They all hate each other now. Plus, I’m still mad, so I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Alex, I told you,” Jack said. “I’m not cheating on you with William, or with anyone else, okay? I would never, ever do anything like that to you. I promise.”

“Fine,” Alex sighed. “But I’m still not going.”

“Yes you are,” Jack said. “Look, it’s the last pizza night we can all have together. Maybe that changed their minds. You won’t know unless we go over there, and if there’s no one there, we can leave, okay?” 

“Fine,” he said again. “Let’s just go get this over with.” Jack smiled and the two of them walked out of the house and started making their way over to the dorm where Jack knew everyone was. Alex was going to be so happy.

\---

“I told you they’d be here,” Jack said, grinning as they walked into the lounge.

“What are you all doing here?” Alex asked, stunned. 

“Listen, Alex,” Ray said. “We all got together and talked about it, and we realized how stupid and childish we’d all been acting. And this is the last Friday pizza night we’ll all have together, so we figured it was about time we cleaned up our act. Of course, we had a little help from your boyfriend.”

“You did this?” Alex asked, turning to Jack. “Why?”

“Alex, it killed me seeing you so upset about all of this. You were devastated, and I had to do something. It started as just a plan to fix what had been going wrong, but somewhere along the way I realized something. I realized just how much you all mean to mean to me and just how special this is. I was worried that if I didn’t try to do something, the whole thing would be lost. I couldn’t let that happen.”

Alex didn’t say anything, just looked at Jack. After a moment his blank stare turned into the widest smile Jack had ever seen, and then Alex kissed him, and Jack knew that everything was going to be okay. All he had left to do was wait for the right time to go ahead with the last part of his plan - the part no one in the room knew about. 

\---

It was a half hour into pizza night when Ray realized they were missing something vitally important: the pizza. When he mentioned it to Gabe, he just got a blank stare in return.

“Oh, goddammit, Gabe.” William remarked. “Did you really forget it?” Gabe nodded.

“Well,” Mikey said. “It’s nice to know some things never change.”

“Actually,” Jon said. “Change is one of the most inevitable things in this chaotic universe in which we control nothing.”

“Right,” William said. “I’ll go order some pizza.” 

“Guys,” Andy said. “I just want you all to know I’ve really missed this. Pizza nights, Gabe forgetting pizza, everyone collectively ignoring anything Jon ever says. It’s like, I don’t know. Everything seems better now.”

“Not everything is the same,” Dallon said. “I mean, there’s a suspicious lack of Joe hiding under my chair to scare me right now.”

“Damn!” Joe exclaimed from his spot next to Andy. “I knew there was something I forgot to do.” Everyone laughed, and Ray had to agree with Andy. Everything was better now.

“Andy’s right,” Gabe said once he’d stopped laughing and William had sat back down with him. “I told you guys at the very first pizza night that you were my first real friends - family, even. I’m still standing by that.”

“God, that seems like it was so long ago,” Patrick said. “That was before Lindsey and Hayley were here.”

“Yeah,” Hayley grinned. “And God knows we livened up this whole group with our endless charm.” There was some laughter, but no one else spoke for a minute.

“It’s weird to think that this is the last time we’ll all hang out like this,” Alex spoke up, breaking the silence. Everyone seemed to agree.

“I think,” Jack began. “That’s why this one has to be special.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, this one just  _ feels  _ special. Like we’re all back where we’re supposed to be. I kind of feel like anything could happen, y’know? Not anything bad, just something to make this one memorable.”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, but didn’t say anything. Ray looked at Jack, and he knew he was probably planning something, but he didn’t ask what. Surprises were good.

\---

After they’d eaten a fair share of pizza and everyone was just having casual conversation, Jack decided it was time for the very end piece of his master plan. Everything else in the plan had actually gone well, so he figured it was a now or never kind of thing. 

“Guys,” he spoke up, making sure everyone heard. “I just wanted to say thanks for coming tonight. I had a little bit of doubt, especially with the night at the house, but I’m so glad you all did this. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course, Jack,” Ray said, speaking for everyone. “God knows we’re all glad everything is finally back to normal. If we’d all gone on fighting for one more day I think I might’ve lost it.”

“I don’t really think there’s such a thing as normal with us anymore,” Jack remarked. “I mean, look at us. Did any of us expect to spend a fair amount of our college career eating pizza in a dorm lounge every Friday night with a bunch of people we’d hated for a while?” 

“Well it’s certainly not how I expected my college experience to end, that’s for sure,” Alex said. “But I’m glad that it is. And I’m glad I met all of you.” He looked at Jack on the last sentence, grinning at him. 

“I still think it’s sweet, in a disgusting sweet kind of way, that you did all this for Alex,” William said. 

“Of course I did,” Jack said. “I’d do anything for Alex. I hope you know that.” The last bit was directed only at Alex, who just nodded.

“I do know that.”

“Oh, God,” Mikey groaned. “You aren’t gonna get all sentimental and sappy on each other are you? I’m still eating.”

“Just for a minute, little Way,” Jack said, smiling. “There’s actually something I want all of you to hear.” He sort of felt like he was going to vomit, but he just took Alex’s hands in one of his and stuck the other in the pocket of his jeans. 

“Jack Barakat, if you break up with me in a room full of our best friends, I swear to God,” Alex said jokingly. Jack laughed.

“No, uh, nothing like that. Listen, Alex. I am so in love with you - which I think you know at this point, but I thought I should remind you. I know I told you this once already, but seeing you so upset over all the fighting and bitterness these past few months broke my heart. I knew I had to do something about it, but I didn’t know what. So I came up with this plan. I called it, uh, Jack Barakat’s Master Plan.”

“Of course you did,” Alex laughed. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Well, the plan had two main parts. Part one was getting everyone to stop fighting and get it together, myself included. Part two was making sure tonight went smoothly.”

“I think you reached your goal,” Alex said. 

“Not quite,” Jack explained. “I mean, tonight isn’t over yet. So, anyways, the whole thing was to try and cheer you up and make you happy. Because one thing I really want to do is make you happy. Alex, I love you so much. And, personally, I’d like to consider myself lucky for finding my soulmate so early in my life, because I know that doesn’t happen for everyone.”

“Oh my god,” William said. Jack was glad at least one of them knew what was going on. “Oh my god.”

“What?’ Gabe asked. “Are you okay, Bilvy?”

“Oh my  _ god, _ ” he repeated. 

“You are not doing what I think you’re doing,” Mikey said, though it sounded muffled because his mouth was full of pizza. He whispered something to Ray, whose eyes went wide. 

“Okay, what am I not catching on to?” Alex asked. 

“Just, hold on. You’re gonna find out,” Jack assured him. “But yeah, like I was saying, I really do think you’re my soulmate, and I know I just want to make you happy. And I hope I can for a really long time. In fact,” he stopped, pulling his hand out of his pocket.

“YOU ARE,” Mikey exclaimed. “OH MY GOD.”

“In fact,” he repeated, hand closed around what he’d pulled out of his pocket. “I really hope I can do that for the rest of my life.”

“Oh my god,” Alex said. “Oh my god you are not actually doing this right now.”

“Alex, I love you more than anything,” he paused one last time, opening the little box to reveal the ring. “And I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

“Holy shit,” Lindsey said. “Holy. Shit.”

“Alex Gaskarth, will you marry me?”

Jack didn’t look over at his friends, but he knew they were all staring, waiting in silence for Alex’s answer. He thought he might puke, but figured doing it while he was proposing probably wasn’t the best time. Every nauseous feeling in his body went away when Alex started nodding.

“Yeah,” he whispered. “Yeah. Yes. I mean, yeah. Of course I will.”

Jack felt like his heart was going to explode and he hugged Alex against him as tight as he possibly could. He barely registered the reaction of his friends as he put the ring on Alex’s finger. 

“William,” Gabe said. “Babe, you’re crying.”

“I know,” William said. “That was just the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“I cannot believe you just did that, man,” Pete spoke up. “That takes balls.”

“You guys are engaged,” Brendon said. “Do you know what that means?”

“Uh, marriage?”

“No,” he said. “TWO BACHELOR PARTIES!”

They all kept on, but Jack wasn’t paying attention. He was watching as Alex showed William the ring, and he had never been so happy in his life.

\---

It was almost midnight when everything started dying down. Given that two of his best friends were engaged, Gabe thought it only fitting that he order more pizza for everyone. And Alex had given the delivery guy a monster tip in his newly-engaged bliss, which everyone thought was hilarious.

Gabe was happy for them. He thought that if anyone there deserved to be together forever, besides himself and William of course, it was Jack and Alex. Plus, the whole group needed something so positive to happen considering all the shit they’d gone through in the past few months. So, yeah, he was happy for them.

He leaned back in the seat he was sharing with William, who was pressed against his side talking to Mikey about something. Gabe didn’t join in any conversations, just looked around. It was something he always found himself doing when they were all together. He guessed it gave him some sense of comfort to know everyone and everything was okay, but he wasn’t sure. He just kind of did it subconsciously. But almost every time, he had some sort of revelation about all of his friends. The first one was that first night at the house, when he’d realized all of this was special. He usually ended up telling his friends what he was thinking, if someone asked. But no one had yet.

“You okay?” William asked. “You’re quiet.” Gabe nodded and William kissed him on the cheek, then returned to his conversation. 

Tonight, Gabe didn’t need to tell anyone what he was thinking, because he was fairly sure everyone in the room was thinking the same thing. As he looked around the room and heard scattered bits of conversation, it resonated with him more and more, and it made him smile. These people were his family, and this place with them was home. It always was, even with the rough patches they’d gone through. But they’d gotten over that. 

And he was so glad to have his family back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and with that, this series is finished. i hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it, and thank you so much if you've read every part. if you ever wanna talk about it, you can message me on tumblr (the url is burkhrt)! :-)


End file.
